Studio report Arcana from Lanvall

Wednesday, 4th of July 2001:Sabine, Roland and myself (Lanvall) arrived the day before. First meet and greet with Angra who are also recording here at the moment and with whom we are sharing the appartment. Incredibly nice guys. First of all we are recording a stereo mix of the keyboards, which exist in midi-files and are the basis for the drum-recordings. We continue with the positioning of the microphones for the drumset, which takes a lot of time. During this procedure the postions are changing till our engineers Dennis Ward, Jochen Weyer and ourselves are satisfied. Roland is starting to record "Starlight Reverie" which doesn't take too long.We continued recording the seperate keyboard tracks of that song and enjoyed the delicious barbecue on the porch. That's how the first day ended.

Thursday, 5th of July 2001:Kurt and Andi arrive in the studio in the evening. The drum parts of "Suspiria", "Fly On A Rainbow Dream", "Color My Sky" and "The Palace" are recorded. We are editing some recorded tracks. There's nothing more exciting that happened that's worth talking about.

Friday, 6th of July 2001:Same procedure than the day before. Roland is recording the drums for the 10-minutes titletrack called "Arcana", "The Whisper Of The Ages" and "Into The Light". Sabine, Kurt and Andi meanwhile are relaxing on a lake near the studio. In the evening we are sitting on the porch and think about something funny that was happening and we are amusing us about that nothing of that kind came to our minds.

Saturday, 7th of July 2001:The last drum parts are recorded ("A Moment Of Time", "Winter Winds" and "Velvet Eyes Of Dawn") and we are making some backups. Roland has finished his work and will go back home on Monday. Tomorrow is a free day.

Sunday, 8th of July 2001:We're enjoying the free day and go to Karlsruhe for sightseeing.

Monday, 9th of July 2001:First of all we are recording some seperate keyboard tracks. Then we try to find the right rhythm-guitar sound. We test some different combinations of preamp, poweramp and cabinet. For the first 2 rhythm-guitar tracks we decide for the Mesa Boogie Triaxis preamp who is running over an Engl Top and a Marshall cabinet. The cabinet is totally muted round and round and everything looks like a small mausoleum. Andi and myself are recording the first song. For the 3rd and 4th rhythm-track we want to have something different so we decide for the Engl Top with the Marshall cabinet.

Tuesday, 10th of July 2001:Andi and myself are recording the final parts for "Starlight Reverie". After the rhythm-guitars we wanna record bass in every song, so Kurt starts with his work. We relatively fast find a good bass sound. Kurt is playing a Warwick-Amp and one signal goes directly into the board, while the other one is running over 2 Ampeg-cabinets and is miked. The next song is "Suspiria", where we do all the rhythm-guitars.

Wednesday, 11th of July 2001:Kurt is recording the bass for "Suspiria". Andi and myself are recording rhythm-guitars for "Color My Sky". Sabine starts with her vocal-parts. After the right microphone was found, Sabine is recording "Suspiria". Angra are leaving and going back to Brazil. We are taking some photos and we wish to see those great guys again very soon.

Thursday, 12th of July 2001:Sabine is recording additional vocal parts for the "Missa Mercuria" rock-opera. Kurt is recording "Color My Sky" and Sabine is doing her vocals for "Starlight Reverie". Pink Cream 69 are here for mastering their new record.

Friday, 13th of July 2001:The day starts promising. Andi and myself are recording "Fly On A Rainbow Dream" and "The Palace". But then the hard disk collapses and can´t be started again. So the day is over, but anyway it´s Friday the 13th.

Saturday, 14th of July 2001:The system is running again, although some of Andis parts in "The Palace" are lost. Andi and mysself are recording "Into The Light", "Winter Winds" and "A Moment Of Time". Sabine does "Color My Sky" and "Fly On A Rainbow Dream". All in all a successful day

Sunday, 15th of July 2001:Day off

Monday, 16th of July 2001:We are recording the final rhythm-guitars for "Arcana", "The Whisper Of The Ages" and "Velvet Eyes Of Dawn"). Sabine is recording "The Palace" and "Into The Light" and we are setting the sound for the clean guitar parts.

Tuesday, 17th of July 2001:I am starting the day with acoustic guitar and record "A Moment Of Time" and "Winter Winds". Kurt records bass for 4 songs and Sabine does "A Moment Of Time.

Wednesday, 18th of July 2001:I am recording all acoustic guitars for "Velvet Eyes Of Dawn". Sabine is taking a break today. Therefore Kurt is recording bass for 3 songs.

Thursday, 19th of July 2001:Kurt is recording his last song "The Whisper Of The Ages". Then Andi and myself are recording all clean guitars. Now only the solos and guitar melodies are missing. We find a perfect sound relatively fast and we decide us for the Mesa Boogie combination Triaxis preamp, Strategy 400 power amp and a Boogie cabinet.

Saturday, 21st of July 2001:Sabine is recording the final tracks "Arcana" and "The Whisper Of The Ages". We are editing some already recorded vocal tracks and keyboards.

Sunday, 22nd of July 2001:We are editing vocal tracks in the 5 hours we are working today.

Monday, 23rd of July 2001:I am recording most of the guitar solos and Sabine is working on the backing vocals. We are looking for the end of the recordings which will be on Wednesday.

Tuesday, 24th of July 2001: I am recording the final guitar solos, afterwards we are editing, doing backing vocals and keyboards. Roland arrives in the afternoon to carry our equipment back to Austria.

Wednesday, 25th of July 2001: Final Day. We are editing vocals in 3 songs and record keyboards for 4 songs. Finally all recordings are finished at 8 o´clock in the evening. The mix will start at the end of August.